I am sending this to both the stag and tr8 lists as I know Staggers hang
out on the tr8 list as well.

1) Is JB Weld safe to use on a gas tank? It claims to be petrolium
resistant. I have a couple pin holes on the bottom of the tank and JB
Weld seems a likely candidate for a stop gap repair while I:

2) Anyone know of a gas tank for a 73 MkII Stag that is stateside and in
good shape?

Jim Altman
jaltman@altlaw.com

Gday Jim;
I have used JB on a petrol tank , but let me explain. I fibre glassed a hole on my sprint tank and got half way across Aust and it started to leak; having no choice, I adopted the "fill up in the morning and drive til empty" routine and it was fine, as only a small weep type leak. (I know that sounds dodgy, but I really was in the middle of nowhere!)

When I got to Melbourne I got a tank with a few pin holes, so I tried to get some JB weld, put couldn't find it, but I got some Selleys pot mender which was amazing - had the consistency of solder, but set hard. Unfortunatelty, vigorous wire brushing of the tank to clean revealed heaps of holes, so not enough of this stuff.

In the end, I bought a fibre glass repair kit, and glassed the whole bottom of the tank.

I know that's a bit long winded, but my point is that where water sits in the bottom of a tank, it is often corroded where the pool of water sits, so a pin hole is usually the first of many. If there is only one pin hole, JB will probably do, but I can't vouch for the long term effect (I've used JB as an emergency bond for the radiator top plates and quite good) but I reckon this pot stuff would be better if you can find it.

But if a complete area is suspect, I've always had good results with fibre glass. The sprint tank ended up having the entire bottom and half the sides done (figured while I had it out!!) and that was 3 years ago, although here (arguably) the sprint tank is harder to get than stag...the sprint is the poor cousin - I would only glass the Stag tank until I got another one, or repaired it properly (ie solder or braze) but thats just my thoughts....

Ken H

Clean the outside really well, shot blast if possible as this will blast all the corroded metal away. You will probably find the tank is in far worse condition than you thought but at least a decent solder repair should then last. (Dont blow yourself with an explosive petrol/air mix in the tank).
Mark.

My tank had an area of pin holes covering say 20% of the bottom after cleaning. At the time new tanks where not available or very expensive so I fibre-glassed the area with the intention of replacement when it started leaking again. That was 16 years ago....
Cheers,
Mike.